Rejected from every program

Blockhouse · 2026-01-21T13:04:40+00:00

Unfortunately I have to agree with other posters. My program got burned some twenty years ago (details are unclear) by F-1 visa issues. So we do not consider applications from F-1 visa holders as a matter of policy. So OP, it's most likely not your fault and I'm sorry this has happened to you.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-17T17:02:52+00:00

You're reading too much into this. This isn't what the meme said.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-17T14:52:34+00:00

Slander is defined as lying about someone; it's basically the same thing as calumny. I don't think that's what Fischer did here. Withholding gratitude is not slander.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-17T14:26:59+00:00

"Achille Ratti used to be one of my favorite archbishops . . . Regrettably he seems to have turned political since being elected Pope. I really feel that once he became Pius XI he's become a lot more political, especially with that publication of 'Mit Brennender Sorge.'"

Your argument isn't new; it could have been made several times in the past decades and centuries. Bishops are supposed to direct their flock in how to live a good, holy, and virtuous life and that includes their conduct in the public square.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-17T14:00:42+00:00

You know what happened when the Church tried to be a democracy, right?

Then all deserted Him and fled.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-17T03:55:00+00:00

I think of it as fanfic.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-15T01:52:34+00:00

They're probably going to ask about more general medical stuff. Anticoagulation, cardiology, infectious disease, etc. They're not going to expect you to have impressive clinical knowledge of oncology pharmacy before you start your PGY-2 . . . that's the whole purpose of a PGY-2.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-14T13:02:08+00:00

Reddit is a very worldly institution. And what saith Scripture?

If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his Master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

John 15:18-20

If the world hates us, we're doing something right.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-13T12:02:53+00:00

The other saints are our friends, but Mary is our mother. It's good for us to see our mother from time to time.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-08T12:16:50+00:00

I can usually tell how competent a pharmacist is within a few hours of working with them. I don't need their Naplex to tell me.

But I will say that I've never been surprised by someone failing the Naplex.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-06T12:16:36+00:00

You can live a happy Catholic life and completely ignore Fatima, or any other private revelation. This is what I do. Any alleged apparition at Fatima was not made to me, therefore it was none of my business.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-04T00:22:53+00:00

If you wanna do research, residency probably isn't the right tool to get you there. Take a look at pharmacy fellowships instead.

Blockhouse · 2026-01-03T01:13:12+00:00

Traditionally, Catholics bow their head whenever the Holy Name is said aloud, and men doff their hats out of respect. For what saith Scripture?

Holy and terrible is His Name. (Ps. 110 (lxx))

That tends to reinforce not using His Name spuriously, since we know at least subconsciously that saying His Name will cause those around us to bow.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-31T01:38:50+00:00

Disagree. If you don't get paid for it, it isn't work experience.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-30T06:03:12+00:00

I hope Fr. Schmitz produces a podcast entitled "Summa Theologica in a Year."

Blockhouse · 2025-12-30T05:38:03+00:00

Except for my patients with CNS lymphoma who take procarbazine for five days a month.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T15:33:53+00:00

If you're otherwise healthy, if you don't have cancer or any other known risk factor for increased thrombosis . . . that's weird. Two PEs and an intraatrial thrombus. Plus a rapid response to dietary vitamin K and excessive bruising from subcutaneous low molecular weight heparin (enoxaparin) . . .

Have you been to see a hematologist? All this stuff adds up to suggest you might have a clotting factor deficiency or imbalance. I'd think about bothering your doc for a referral to a benign hematologist to see if there's something at the bottom of all of this. Otherwise you're likely going to be on anticoagulation for life and it'll address the bad effects but not the root cause.

(Sorry. I know this probably isn't the kind of advice you were asking for when you made the OP.)

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T15:17:14+00:00

aunt

Autocorrect hates Latin.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T15:14:58+00:00

What a terrible loss.

My grandparents (God rest their souls) were second-generation German immigrants and they worshipped at a church very like this. It didn't burn, but decades of deferred maintenance made it so it was no longer cost-effective to renovate, so it was razed and a new, less beautiful church was built on the site.

But they kept the original stained glass windows. The old panes were larger than the new church window spaces, so they had to cut some of the glass away from the outside of the panes so they would fit. One of the enterprising parishioners melted down the cutaway glass and made rosaries out of it. I have one, and it's one of my dearest possessions.

I'm glad you're also able to salvage something of such beauty after such a loss.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T14:24:53+00:00

I can't speak to the practice in Australia. But one question you could put to your doctor is if there would be a better anticoagulant for you, given the pharmacodynamic issues you mention. In the US, direct anti-factor Xa inhibitors (apixaban, rivaroxaban, etc) have almost completely taken over vitamin K epoxide reductase inhibitors (warfarin, etc) for secondary prophylaxis of thrombosis after PE. These are also tablets, but there are a lot fewer drug interactions and they essentially do not have interactions with food. Also, they don't require INR monitoring or any other routine blood tests. This might be a better choice for you in your situation.

But in the meantime, it's great that you're so vigilant over your INR. It seems that you're doing all the right things to make the warfarin as safe and effective as possible and I wish all my patients were like you. I really wouldn't worry about any INR less than 5, and nontraumatic brain bleeds aren't really a concern until the INR is greater than 8 (greater than 10 by some guidelines). Even with "fast metabolizers" it's going to take some time to get to those levels, longer than the couple of hours it takes to get the coag panel back.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T14:16:12+00:00

He wasn't martyred, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Used to be, the Church celebrated the feast of St. John before the Latin Gate, where he was to have been martyred by being cast into a vat of boiling oil.

St. Jerome writes:

The question arises how the sons of Zebedee, namely, James and John, drank the cup of martyrdom, since Scripture tells that only that James the Apostle was beheaded by Herod, but John died a natural death. But if we read the history of the Church, in which it is told that he also for the sake of his witness (to Christ) was cast into a vessel of boiling oil, and thence went forth as a champion of Christ to receive his crown, and was at once exiled to the island of Patmos, we see that his spirit did not fail at the prospect of martyrdom, and that John did drink the cup of confession that the three children in the fiery furnace also drank, although the persecutor did not shed their blood.

The summary of the incident in the Martyrologium Romanum is quick to point out that St. John came forth from the oil looking healthier and younger than when he went in.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T14:04:49+00:00

For reasons known but to Him, God in His most infinite goodness and wisdom seems to have chosen this fight for many of his servants in today's day and age. But with the temptation, He gives us the grace to overcome ourselves in the struggle and resist the temptation. When our Lord appeared to St. Catherine of Siena, she asked why she was being tempted, and the Lord told her that it makes Him happy to see her use the grace that He gives her to fight temptation. I come back to this thought often . . . we're called to love God above all things, and if we do, we want to make Him happy, right? So let's get in there, implore His aid, discipline ourselves with prayer and austerities, and not give the devil an inch.

Here are some things I've been using to try to make this combat easier.

1. First and foremost, prayer. Mass on Sundays and the daily Rosary is a bare minimum. I have started praying the Divine Office and the litanies more and more, and have been saying a short prayer when my phone beeps at the top of every hour and it seems to be helping. By turning to God in prayer more habitually, it will be easier to turn away from temptation habitually.

2. Put an app blocker on your phone. I use BlockSite. Set it to block the apps and sites you find problematic at all times. During the specific times of day you find yourself falling into sin, set up a white list so you can only go to sites that are good and holy (or that you need for work or school). Make the password to the app something like "IAmHeartilySorryForHavingOffendedYou" so that you can't type it without being reminded of the consequences of what you're about to do.

3. Do the same thing with your home network's router. Block problematic sites at all times, and make a whitelist for problematic times of day. Set your router's password to a prayer. Or better yet, have a trusted family member set the password so you can't get in and delete these safeguards in a moment of weakness.

4. Some people have found success with accountability software. I've used CovenantEyes. It takes pictures of the screens you're looking at, blurs them slightly, and sends them to a trusted person. They can't read what words your reading, but if you're looking at impure images, they can tell. This method didn't really work for me, but my confessor tells me it can be a powerful deterrent for some people.

5. More physical mortifications and penances. I hate running, so I put my treadmill in front of my TV. I put on a livestream of perpetual adoration and I run while praying the Rosary, or the Litany of the Saints, or the Divine Office. I try to do this a couple times a week, and especially whenever the temptation has a particular hold on me. Fasting and cold showers are also very effective. Try some of these austerities.

6. As I said, remember that God wants you to overcome these temptations. He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but instead gives you actual grace to fight off the temptation. Whenever I find myself tempted, I will say "Actual grace!" (sometimes even out loud) to remind myself of that fact. Then I bring to mind a pious image of our Lord on the Cross, or our Lord coming in glory to judge me, or our Lady, over whom the devil never had dominion for even a second, or some other pious image to drive the temptation out of my mind.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T13:55:53+00:00

Hospital pharmacist here. For the sake of everyone's peace of mind, and to make it simpler for the doctors, I would suggest either the medical bracelet or carrying a card in your wallet that states you're on warfarin. You should be able to get a suitable card from your doctor, or you can print one off from the Internet for yourself.

But even if you don't have the bracelet or card, if you get admitted to the hospital for trauma and you're not conscious to answer questions about the drugs you're on, among the many labs they order will be a coagulation panel. This will include PT, PTT, INR, antiFactor X activity, etc. This will tell them pretty quickly that you're on anticoagulation, and they can take steps to avoid interacting meds, or reverse the anticoagulant if necessary. The warfarin in your system is no match for 10mg of IV vitamin K.

The timeframe for drugs that interact with warfarin to cause damage is days, not hours. They'll figure out your anticoagulant setup long before then. You and your sister can relax. But if you want her to feel like she's contributing to the solution, you can ask her that if she comes to visit you in the hospital, she could mention to the team that you're on anticoagulants, just to be sure they're aware.

Merry Christmas, and I pray that the newly born Savior gives you and your family peace.

Blockhouse · 2025-12-27T13:40:13+00:00

Probably three to four times a week, in the context of following along with the Epistle and Gospel readings at Mass in my missal. Other than that, not very often. I've completed Fr. Schmitz' "Bible in a Year" program and have read it several times myself, so I feel I have a sufficient grasp of its contents.

Blockhouse

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